Abstract: This autoethnography describes my coming out as an atheist to my religious parents. The joy and freedom of outing oneself is contrasted with the diffi culty of the process. This moment of outing is one of joy, though a joy not absent of sorrow. The experience of freeing myself from the religious closet offers an opportunity to refl ect on what a complicated (and autoethnographic) version of joy might look like.
